Skeptic
by Hc-Svnt-Dracones
Summary: Because high school is universal...ONESHOT


This is based on my first day of science with Mr. Watkins, except placed in a public, co-ed high school, versus my school. Munch's reaction is basically what I did, but a bit more so. SIGH Munch is decidedly not mine, but hey my birthday's coming right up, so please?

John Munch, ninth-grader, took a seat near the front of the class as he entered room 117 for science class. The teacher at the front of the room was a skinny, middle-aged man with gray hair and glasses. He was even gawkier than John was and had an eternally smiling face.

"I'm Mr. Watkins," the teacher introduced himself to the room, as it was nearly full. "Now…before we begin, I'd like to show you all something." John was scribbling in his notebook, trying to make his ballpoint pen write properly. Rick Thompson had taken the seat next to him, for reasons John couldn't comprehend. Susan Levi sat on the other side. She smiled at John, unintentionally making him very uncomfortable. Mr. Watkins had gone around to the back of the classroom and through the door to the chemistry lab. John gave up on the pen, throwing it back into his backpack and took out a pencil. Mr. Watkins returned to the classroom, carrying a beaker. The beaker had in it a clear-yellowish liquid and several frenetically moving black things. "Head lice, as you all probably know, are a widespread problem especially in large cities because of crowding and poor hygiene. Recently, in many of the world's capitals scientists have found _these_ little guys living and thriving in the sewers. They are a mutated form of common head lice and they live off of human waste. This is a sample from Baltimore's sewers, which a friend got for me. We have to keep them in the sewer water or they won't survive." He set the beaker down on Susan's desk. "The bright light is probably what's making them so energetic right now." John leaned toward the beaker, as Susan looked nauseous. In fact, that seemed to be most of the girls' reaction.

"Gross!" Rick shouted

"They don't have any legs," John pointed out to the teacher

"No. If they did, they'd easily jump out of the beaker and we can't have that." Something crossed John's mind, a trick he used to pull on his brother when they were younger…John reached across Susan's desk to grab the beaker for a closer look, but Mr. Watkins picked it up and plucked a louse out of the liquid between two pencils.

"Who wants to hold it?" he asked, grinning. Several girls squealed as he offered it to them. The boys seemed to be trying very hard not to appear disgusted.

"I'll take it." John said, putting out his hand. He realized what Mr. Watkins was up to. He was amazed Susan hadn't. The beaker had been on her desk the whole time. She probably hadn't wanted to look at them too closely. Mr. Watkins dropped the louse onto John's outstretched hand with a wide grin. At closer inspection, John knew he had been right. The boy popped the louse into his mouth, chewed, and swallowed. Susan covered her mouth, horrified. Kate gasped in shock, Rick groaned loudly, and Tom cried,

"Pencil, that's _disgusting_!" swiftly followed by Jim's yell of

"Don't you know where that's been?" Jim pointed at the beaker that was full of waste taken from Baltimore's sewers.

"Oh, that sounds good." John said, enjoying the revulsion on his classmates' faces, "could I take a sip, sir?" Mr. Watkins handed the beaker to John who then took a long draw from it.

"How's it taste?" asked Peter, in wonder.

"Fine. You know; the Romans drank urine and used it for cleaning clothes," John said, "The ammonia removes stains." He grinned, before adding, "Too bad this is ginger ale. And those 'lice' are nothing but raisins."

Mr. Watkins smiled and said, "class, John's just demonstrated something absolutely essential to the study of science." The teacher picked up a piece of chalk and began to scribble on the board, "Skepticism. Nothing you will ever learn in this class is necessarily fact. Theories are proven wrong in the scientific community every day. If it weren't for skeptics like John there, Galileo would never have discovered Jupiter's moons, Sir Isaac Newton wouldn't have never have written or published _Principia_, Kepler wouldn't have created the laws of motion, Ptolemy and Copernicus wouldn't have thought of the geocentric or heliocentric solar systems, and Einstein wouldn't have recreated the way we look at the universe with the theory of relativity among other things. A healthy amount of skepticism is vital to science." John grinned. He thought he'd probably like this teacher.


End file.
